MADRID : Magnus Cort Nielsen said it was a “big dream come true” after he claimed stage 18 of the Vuelta a Espana in a sprint finish Thursday as Nairo Quintana maintained his handsome lead over Chris Froome.
\nThe Dane took his first Grand Tour stage win from Germany s Nikias Arndt and stage 16 winner Jempy Drucker in 4hrs 54min 31secs for the 200.6km ride from Requena to Gandia.
\nQuintana finished alongside Froome in the same time to keep his 3min 37sec lead ahead of Friday s crucial 37km time trial from Xabia to Calp.
\nFroome realistically has just two stages to overturn Quintana s commanding advantage if he is to become the first man to win the Tour de France and the Vuelta in the same year since 1978.
\nThe Brit is expected to claw back significant time on the Colombian in the time trial, setting up a showdown on the special category climb to Alto Aitana on Saturday before Sunday s traditional parade around the centre of Madrid for the race s final stage.
\n“We have two important stages remaining and we need to be aware of any attack they could come up with on Saturday. Tomorrow is head-to-head and there is no help,” said Quintana.
\n“To have the red jersey gives you that little bit more adrenalin to fight for what you want.”
\nQuintana had said early in the race he needed at least a three-minute lead to hold off Froome s superior time trialing ability, but is hopeful of losing little more than a minute.
\n“I think more than a minute would be a lot. Now I am in very good condition and these type of time trials haven t gone badly for me.”
\nAfter another gruelling mountain climb to the end of Wednesday s 17th stage, the long but mostly flat road to Gandia offered a chance for the sprinters to shine.
\nA five-man breakaway enjoyed a lead of six minutes, but were also kept in check by the peloton and reeled in with 11km remaining to set up a sprint finish.
\nNielsen timed his run to the line perfectly to pick up Orica-BikeExchange s third win of the race after Britain s Simon Yates and Belgian Jens Keukeleire took stages six and 12 respectively.
\n“It s a really big dream come true for me,” said Nielsen.
\nOrica have enjoyed a fine tour with Esteban Chaves 20 seconds off Froome in third overall and Yates fifth in the general classification.
\n“We normally try for the GC guys, but today I gave it a go and it s amazing,” added Nielsen.
\n“It s my first Grand Tour ever, three wins and two guys up in the GC. It s a nice team to be on at the moment.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
MADRID : Magnus Cort Nielsen said it was a “big dream come true” after he claimed stage 18 of the Vuelta a Espana in a sprint finish Thursday as Nairo Quintana maintained his handsome lead over Chris Froome. The Dane took his first Grand Tour stage win from Germany s Nikias Arndt and stage 16 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3204,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3196","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports"],"yoast_head":"\n